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The IBM Social Business Solutions Community is a place for our users, customers, partners, developers, and prospects to share information and learn from and collaborate with one another around IBM social business offerings. The Social Business Solutions blog is our place for sharing news about IBM Connections, IBM Verse, IBM Notes and Domino, IBM Sametime, IBM Docs, and more. We encourage you to share posts and share your comments. This blog is maintained by Jacques Pavlenyi and Penny Hill per IBM Social Computing Guidelines.

As a kid playing basketball, it was quite common to toss a ball at a friend who wasn’t watching and then yell “Think fast!” The thing that made this work so well (for those tossing the ball) was the surprise effect on the recipient. Often it was unexpected or “out of nowhere”. I find that interesting…even kids know to respond to a new unexpected event requires fast thinking.

Oscar Robertson was a great basketball player. According to Wikipedia, he “was a twelve-time NBA All-Star, eleven-time member of the All-NBA Team, and one-time winner of the MVP award in fourteen professional seasons. He is the only player in NBA history to average a triple-double for an entire season.”

But it’s been said he had a particular advantage over most of the other players - Oscar Robinson had unbelievable peripheral vision. He was able to clearly see what was happening, not just in front of him, but around him…team mates that were open…threats that were approaching. This allowed him to predict, act more quickly and take advantage of his opponents who were expecting him to only focus on what was in front of him.

In the game that is our work, we often focus on what is in front of us. And it’s no wonder, even our education systems are built on focus (and measurement)…for every question, there is one answer…and it’s in the back of the book…and don’t ask anyone else…that’s cheating. In business we’re given an assignment and we “focus” on finding the answer.

Several of the things that focus us are email, status meetings and internal conference calls. How much time do you spend on these? And while you’re focused on these things, what’s happening around you…in your peripheral vision? How many times have you been “heads down” on some project and then discovered that your competitor did something totally unexpected which resulted in your work being for naught? Have you ever been aiming for one target, one customer, or one solution…only to find that you missed an opportunity on the fringe? If your head is in your in-box, or always focused on internal updates, then you’re not able to watch what’s going on around you.

Social business solutions, like IBM Connections allow you to lift your head and look around. You can maintain a direction (focus), but you don’t have to sacrifice your peripheral view of the world. When social is integrated into your daily business, you can “stay on task and stay in touch”. By building out your social network, you’re building out your business radar. People whom you trust become sentinels who look out for your interests and alert you to activities that might concern you.

Connected people (and companies) are observant to their surroundings. They are able to react more quickly. They see the broader picture and can spot the threat or new opportunity before others. They are agile. They survive. They “Think fast”…they “Think social!”

I had the privilege of giving a session at this year's Lotusphere titled "Getting beyond 'good enough' with SharePoint". The session came about as a result of many of my encounters with companies seeking to become a social business. When I questioned them about what they were doing in the area of "social", they would often respond that they "had SharePoint...and that it was good enough". At each of these encounters I had the opportunity to share with them why SharePoint might not be "good enough" for them...that they deserved more. So I asked for the time at Lotusphere to share this with a larger audience and have posted the session (including the audio overlay) out on Slideshare. It's only 30 minutes long.

You need to open conversationsSharePoint is mostly about "content" and when you take a content centric approach, you'll find yourself thinking about "where do I put this?" That question alone is an indication that you are having to decide (upfront) several constraints, like: who might look for it (make sure it's in a site where they can access it), how they might look for it (make sure it's in a site that is on topic), etc. If you have more open conversations, you make the information and ideas more accessible and welcome further reach and unpredicted uses. (Note: some conversations and content need to be secured and tightly controlled. We understand that as well and allow for that. But most of what we say and share could, and should, have a broader impact.)

You need to know who is listening and what they think or know...or how they might helpYou can't always know who has the answer to your question...or who might have some very helpful insight or a perspective that may be extremely beneficial. We often struggle with problems that others around us have already solved. If you just use a Sharepoint content approach, the best you could hope for is a result from a search. And as mentioned in the first point, a content approach may limit your audience to a specific group. And when people have an opinion, it's not just interesting for you, but also for others.

Open conversations (like social systems) are inclusiveIf you depend on a Microsoft centric system, you may be severely limiting your social reach. SharePoint may be "available" in other environments, but the experience has been built specifically for a Microsoft audience...so anything else is going to get a lesser experience. By forcing your audience to use a particular Operating System, or worse yet...a specific browser...or most restricting...a specific type of cellular phone, you're telling these people that "they aren't as important to you". I attended the SharePoint annual conference in Anaheim last fall. Like many others, I had an iPad which I used for Tweeting, etc. The conference schedule was on a SharePoint server. Like the others, I was not able to use the online schedule as it didn't work on the iPad and Safari browser. I (and my iPad) were not as important to them.

If you have any questions or feedback, please post your comments below. If you'd like to reach me regarding this topic, you can email me richardl@us.ibm.com or find other contact information at CreativityCrisis

I wanted to share this report documenting a great social business tool we use at IBM...the "jam". This one is of particular interest to this community as it is specifically about the use of social tools in the workplace. Here are the intro paragraphs to the report:

On February 8–10, 2011, IBM hosted an online conversation (called a “Jam”), bringing together over 2,700 participants—representing corporations, academic institutions, nonprofit organizations and government agencies—to discuss social business and the ways in which it can redefine how we work in the years ahead. For 72 hours, individuals from over 80 countries “jammed” on key issues and generated new ideas on the major themes:

Building the social business of the future

Developing participatory organizations through social adoption

Using social media to understand and engage with customers

Determining what social means for IT

Identifying risks and establishing governance

The Jam yielded over 2,600 discussion posts and more than 600 tweets. This report summarizes the key insights gathered from the comments of the entire community. Although it doesn’t necessarily represent IBM’s position on social business, it can serve as a blueprint for organizations that are considering adopting a social business strategy.

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